Cactus Haworthia Retusa

I’m talking to you today about a crass plant that’s usually very curious. It is the Haworthia Retusa, from South Africa, known as Aloe Retusa or the scientific synonym of Haworthia Retusa var. Multilineata. It is a plant that once grown, is small in size because it does not exceed four centimeters in height by five in diameter.

It is formed by oval, curved, pointed fleshy leaves at the tip and plains at the base, which grows as a rosette with a pale green line on its surface. They are between one and four centimeters long and two in length. We can also see that the edges of the leaves are toothed. They are very easy to care for, because they resist drought very well, and as a point of favor I can tell you that it does not require direct sunshine to survive, which makes it an excellent craze to have it inside the house in a very well-lit room. That is, if you have it on the outside, it’s very important that it’s protected from direct solar radiation because in the hottest hours, there’s a danger that the leaves will burn and then dry up to death.

As I said before, it is a plant that does not grow in height, and we can say with certainty that it is already adult when we see that from the base it starts to emerge young plants that, if we do it right, will help us to create new specimens. Flowers are not surprising or striking, such as flowers on a cereus. They emerge from a very simple stem arising from the center of the haworthia about twelve centimeters long and at the tip of the haworthia, a small white flower of one centimeter in diameter emerges.

The irrigation must be rather scarce throughout the season. An excess of moisture would harm it until reached the point of root stinking and subsequent death. So ideally, irrigation once every fortnight in spring and autumn and once a week in summer (as long as you are in a place where there is a lot of heat and the plant drinks fast water). If it is a very wet summer, you must also consider irrigating once every fortnight. In autumn, stop providing water until the following spring when temperatures are less than five degrees positive. Keep Haworthia completely dry in winter. You can irrigate once a month in winter if you are in an area where minimum temperatures do not fall from ten positive degrees. It can hold minimum temperatures of two degrees negative as long as they are pointless, but should not expose it to less than zero degrees.

Finally, a plant curiosity. It is not known exactly, but it is believed that the first plants used in the interior of the houses date back to 1500 BC, when the pharaohs were queening.